The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recently warned that as many as 1,500 pregnant women in the besieged Yemeni port city of Hodeida are at risk of death now that the city’s only hospital capable of providing emergency care services has become inaccessible due to the fighting.

One day after vice president Mike Pence and China`s president Xi Jinping clashed after exchanging sharply worded barbs in a showdown between the two superpowers, on Sunday the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit ended in unprecedented chaos and disarray, without agreement on a joint communique for the first time in its history as the escalating rivalry between the United States and China dominated proceedings and reflected escalating trade tensions.

Venezuela has denounced the freezing of payments of imported medical supplies such as anti-malaria or HIV treatments. The vast majority of Venezuela’s medical supplies and equipment are imported, and thus vulnerable to blockading policies by foreign agents.

America is coming today to rescue its guys in the region. Trump and the American do not care about Yemen’s children nor any such thing. Yet what we care about is the result. What matters for us is that this war and fighting ends. What is interesting though is that (the Americans) said (the war must end) within one month. Why one month? Why not now? Why not directly and immediately?! This point also has the careful attention of our brothers in Yemen, or they must pay careful attention to it. It is as if the Americans are telling this Saudi-Emirati coalition: ‘You have one month (left). Organise your affairs, see what (military) equations you can secure, see what (military) achievements you can muster, (because) after one month the world will tell you to stop’.

Nasrallah called for caution in relation to the recent call by the United States for warring sides to end the conflict, warning that it could be a ploy or time-buying measure. If it was indeed a serious call, Nasrallah said that it has come about due to the steadfastness and perseverance of the Yemenis, and not due to anti-Saudi back clash from the Khashoggi saga, nor the sudden awakening of world conscience towards the ‘four years-long massacre of the Yemeni people’.

The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces announced that the entire southern region is now free of terrorism following the elimination of the last terrorist gatherings of ISIS terrorist organization in Tuloul al-Safa area deep inside Sweida eastern Badiya (Desert).

All wars initiated or supported by the US establishment — from the occupation of Iraq in 2003, to the second Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006, and to regime-change efforts in Syria in 2011 and the occupation of a third of Iraq in 2014 — have failed in their goal of stoking the fire of sectarian war between Sunni and Shia in the Middle East. The failure of this strategy has pushed the US establishment towards two new options: the first, of using the media to reveal Saudi Arabia’s intention to harm the Iranian economy and assassinate its military commanders. The second is to promote and advertise for an “Arab (Sunni) NATO Army”. The goal is to keep the possibility of sectarian war alive.

The defeat of Hillary, and the elevation of the vulgar Mr. Trump, loosed a fury of women against men in America that now verges on a kind of all-consuming chaos, like those western wildfires turning every product of human endeavor in the burn-path to smoke and ash. All the sorrows of our national life are assigned lately to the wicked white male patriarchy that must be defeated to usher in a satori of female sharing-and-caring.

Not content to sit back and let the State of Maryland do all the heavy lifting (and reap all of the credit should it succeed) three of the most publicity hungry Democrats in the Upper Chamber are reportedly filing a federal lawsuit to challenge Acting AG Matthew Whitaker`s appointment, arguing that President Trump`s decision to elevate Whitaker over Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein using a controversial federal succession law was unconstitutional.

One of the things to look forward to in the upcoming holiday season is the special treats that one is allowed to sample. Fruitcake and nuts are Thanksgiving and Christmas favorites. They usually come in tins or special packages but it seems that this season some of the nuts have escaped and have fled to obtain sanctuary from the Trump Administration.

Why are these cars on fire? There are no flames on either side of the freeway. Cars racing down a freeway even through flames will probably not catch fire. So what’s going on? It never used to happen but now it’s “the new normal”. What changed? The weaponry, that’s what.

This sounds like a bad joke. It ain’t. Its real. One fascist government helps another fascist government. Yes, I have written about fascism invading the west before – warning that the European Union (non-union) is being gradually, but ever faster turned into a fascist dictatorship under the guise of democratic protection of ‘Democracy’; and this by her unelected European Commission (EC) leaders (sic). EU citizens are being brainwashed with neoliberal lie-propaganda into believing that they are living in the heart of democracy – that they are free and protected by police and military, 24×7.

Update II: As was widely expected, Nissan`s board will take steps to oust Ghosn at a meeting on Thursday, according to CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who is speaking at a late night press conference being carried live on Japanese TV.... As investors speculate about what Ghosn`s ouster will mean for the future of the Nissan-Renault relationship, Bloomberg highlighted signs of fracture that will likely be exacerbated by the scandal.

Russian sixth generation combat aircraft will be hypersonic, first flight is scheduled until 2025. This was reported on 09 June 2016 by TASS, citing the head of the directorate of military aircraft programs, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Vladimir Mikhailov. “He [prototype] rise into the air, as we plan, no later than two or three years after 2020”, said Mikhailov. United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) expected to fly a hypersonic “sixth-generation” fighter before 2025. Mikhailov stated it was currently under research and development, including engineering design.

President Trump had asked the CIA to do an assessment of the murder. Apparently, from the leak to the US press, part of the evidence came from National Security Agency wiretaps of the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC.

A new study by Bloomberg Economics claims that US sanctions have knocked as much as 6% off Russia`s economy over the past four years. ... Meanwhile the U.S. State Department announced this week it`s actually considering further rounds of draconian sanctions related to the Skripal case.

Here`s the ugly truth: Facebook and Google are profit-maximizing quasi-monopolies who will do anything to protect their monopolies. Of the many remarkable trend changes of the past year, few are more striking than the fawning embrace of Facebook et al. by Big Media turning to an enraged sense of betrayal. Facebook and Google--by their own self-definitions, shining beacons of liberalism and goodness (we`re not evil, we`re fantabulous!) -- were viewed by the famously liberal Big Media as allies in the fight against Trump, illiberalism, populism, deglobalization, etc.

Sunday Times, 18 November 2018: the British Army has been tasked with getting ready to maintain order in the UK’s big cities by working alongside the police. Confronted by the EU’s rigidity, it is unlikely Prime Minister Theresa will be unable to reach an agreement with Brussels.

It seems that the American withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Ever since the possibility was mentioned, talk in Moscow has turned ominous, to the point that Putin’s adviser, Andrei Belusov, confirmed in late October: “Russia is preparing for war and so is the U.S.”.

The current military-political doctrine of the Israeli leadership is based on the continuation of the occupation of the Syrian and Palestinian territories occupied by the state of Israel, which requires constant violence and acts of international aggression and state terrorism against the population of the occupied territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syria and Iran.

There was something gruesomely familiar about the way we commemorated the supposed end of the First World War a hundred years ago. Not just the waterfalls of poppies and the familiar names – Mons, the Somme, Ypres, Verdun – but the almost total silence about all those who died in the First World War, whose eyes were not as blue as ours might be or whose skin was not as pink as ours might be or whose suffering continues from the Great War to this very day!

Forest fires are a normal thing. Often caused by lightning or other natural causes, they are God’s way of clearing forests. In those natural forest clearances, the wildlife that exists in them are threatened or their habitat is destroyed. What has changed is mankind’s intervention in the natural process. The question is, what other factors may be causing the change in the intensity of recent forest fires?

Last month the worldwide Orthodox Christian communion was plunged into crisis by the decision of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Constantinople to recognize as legitimate schismatic pseudo-bishops anathematized by the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is an autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church.